Yeah, it would have been much better had they visually depicted Sansa’s rape. /s

I think you’re wrong. She would be recognized as Lady of Winterfell (LOW) as Ned’s only known living heir or nothing at all. You can look at it from the perspective of The North or the Iron Throne.

Feel free to show that in just as much graphic, gratuitous detail as they do the abuse of women.

It might also have been a matter of her being underage, as I believe she wasn’t yet 18 when they filmed it. I mean, if she’s 18 now and that scene was from a season or 2 ago (I forget which), and them filming it long before it aired... Pretty sure there would have been uproar had they showed her reaction to it, as…

Theon didn’t really do anything that Sansa wasn’t pushing him to do

I really felt like the pan to Theon was that it was about both of them and not showing it was the choice to avoid being gratuitous. Would you rather they stayed on her the whole time? I wouldn’t.

The show promotes rape culture? I think that’s a bit of a stretch, as is the notion that in 2017 it is taboo to discuss rape culture. It’s quite the opposite, it’s mainstream, at least in liberal circles such as ours. It’s not taboo simply because there is push back from the right, conservatives, and MRA types.

True enough. I guess my interpretation of the way that scene was shot was to basically account for the fact that Sansa, unlike Cersei earlier, is a minor so they didn’t want to shoot it too directly. I’m not sure if Sophie Turner was 18 at the time, but if not, well...I mean if they really thought, for whatever…

It’s also not something that happens to Sansa in the books, making her rape seem all the more gratuitous.

I mean, the decision to focus on Theon’s reaction was largely, I think, because they didn’t feel the need to actually visually depict the scene, but still wanted to portray it’s horror. I think it was a smart choice. Theon is effectively a stand in for the viewer, witnessing the terrible act.

People complain about the show all the time, but thank GOD the Farya storyline was omitted. If they think Sansa had nothing to do NOW, try reading the endless Alayne chapters. Same with Fageon.

She’s also very young, and privileged. That’s not an excuse as much as... well. I was young and (am still) privileged, and didn’t (still don’t) always get this stuff right when talking about it.

I can see them being a bit damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If the camera was left on Sansa, it could also look exploitative or gratuitous or even sexualized vs. violent. (People lobbed that complaint against Irreversible, but I don’t see it.) Even a psycho like Ramsay would know that he couldn’t treat someone…

I felt like the chief objection to Sansa’s rape was that they panned the camera to Theon’s reaction, as if the trauma was his and not hers. In the long term, they did recover from that unfortunate directing choice and bear out the full weight of what Sansa went through from her POV. It’s still frustrating that most…

It wasn’t gratuitous. It was directly from the book. Except the book disgustingly made it a non-POV character and it was all about Theon’s redemption saving a girl everyone forgot about from the first book. All of those chapters are how tortured poor Reek is having to watch a girl being raped by dogs.

I get to hate this plot point all over again. Just so we’re clear, Sansa is the Lady of Winterfell not as Ned Stark’s oldest heir but as Ramsay Bolton’s widow.

I never felt the same about that scene as some did: I felt it was presented not so much as “a motivation for a male character” but more focused a sibling watching a sibling being raped (which he essentially was), and a sibling knowing her sibling was watching.

I dunno...he looks like an unscented antiperspirant kinda guy. My bet would be clean laundry and soap.

He’s dignified and intelligent, and these days these two qualities will skew anyone’s judgment.

There are days I hate the man and days that I think he’s a decent human being.